


Help me piece it all together before it falls apart

by cutebutpsyco



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Canon Divergence - Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Endgame happens but Nat saves the day, Gen, Inspired By Pinterest, Inspired by the comics, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-23
Updated: 2019-06-23
Packaged: 2020-05-18 11:44:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,833
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19333867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutebutpsyco/pseuds/cutebutpsyco
Summary: “I’m always having your back, Steve,” A playfully smile crossed her lips. “Need a com.”Steve nodded, an earpiece appeared out of nowhere. “It’s good to have you back.”“Tell me when this will be over. Guys, did you miss me?”





	Help me piece it all together before it falls apart

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is inspired by [this post](https://pin.it/zpcylzgzoi6xhe) from Pinterest and from a panel in the comics that a friend sent to me. I've never read the comics which means that I have no idea of how it happens there and this is 99% fruit of my fantasy. I also cried a few times while writing this, but that's just because I'm still sad about Endgame and I'm far too emotional over Nat.   
> In this fic there isn't the female power scene from the final battle because I don't remember it too vividly and I'm still too destroyed to think about rewatching the movie, but a integration will come because I feel robbed, Nat deserved to be in that scene! 
> 
> This said, nothing belongs to me, this is unbetad and the title is from Quarter Past Midnight by Bastille.

_ “Natasha, daughter of Ivan.” _

 

_ “So you believe him because he knows your father’s name?” “I didn’t.” _

 

_ “Tell my family I love them.” “You tell them yourself.” _

 

_ The sting from the arrow that hit her leg, muscle and flash cut by the sharp end of it, and Clint, closer to the cliff.  _

 

_ “Let me go. It’s okay.” _

 

That was Nat’s last memory, the last thing her mind registered a moment before she started to fall, fighting against each of her instincts. Because even if she had the possibility to try and save herself, she knew she couldn't. There was a larger plan, and she was the one who had nothing to lose in that. She didn’t really have someone who was waiting for her at home, her family already knew the price for that mission. They needed to find the Stones, whatever it takes.

 

And that was fine. If for once she could do something that would have ended in saving lives, instead of taking them, she did it with a smile on her lips. It was okay. She didn’t lie to Clint, it really was. She got to meet her family once again, and that was fine too. Not everyone had the same luxury when Thanos snapped, and not everyone had the opportunity to do once the others revered the Mad Titan’s doing. She knew it because she saw Thor. The guilt, the pain, the knowledge that everything wasn’t enough. 

 

She could save him, she could give him pace, she could give Tony a future with his daughter, she could give Steve his friends back, Bruce the opportunity to continue to do good, and Clint, Clint would have come back home, at the end of the day, and would have met the people he loved the most. They would have been happy, and if she was the prize for their happiness, she would have jumped down that cliff over and over again. 

 

It was okay, she was okay. 

 

\--

 

She opened her eyes in a weird land. It looked like another planet, but Nat wasn’t sure about that. Visiting alien planets seemed to be the new life in those last crazy five years, but there was something weird, in this one. 

 

It was like it was suspended in a precise instant, everything was still, like a picture on a postcard. She crawled up, looking at her surroundings. All she could see around her was water, but she wasn’t wet, and even the orange fluid didn’t touch her directly. Everything around her, was desert, an infinite horizon of still water in orange light. It wasn’t the same as the sunset, but, somehow, that was the closest thing to it. And then, there was something different in that dull landscape. 

Something which seemed to be like a temple. She moved closer to it, trying to see if there was someone, anyone, and trying to ripe away the weird feeling that moving in absolute stillness left in her body. The temple seemed to be the best place where to go, trying to look around and find a way to understand what was going on. 

 

“Natalia Alianovna Romanova,” A voice reached her, forcing Nat to turn toward its source. Few people knew her real name: Clint, Steve, possibly Tony and Nick thought that voice didn’t belong to neither of them. The person who was in front of her was a child, an alien child, with long black and red hair, green skin and deep dark eyes. “This is not your place.”

 

“What do you mean?” Was the first thing that crossed her mind. There was something familiar in the face in front of her, while Nat knew she had never met the young alien. She didn’t know her, but, Nat understood a moment later, that must be Gamora. She heard a lot about her from Nebula and while she had always guessed the woman was older, she had no doubts about her identity, even if it was weird at best. “Where are we?”

 

“This is the other side of Vormir,” The young alien replied, her voice sounded older than she looked, wiser. “A soul for a soul. Thanos killed me to obtain the Soul Stone, he sacrificed my soul without second thoughts, but you… You and your friend were ready to do everything to save the other - She smiled, and her smile was sad, Nat couldn’t say if it was because of her words or because, maybe, nobody tried to do the same for her. - You were ready to give up to your soul to save the universe. You don’t belong here.”

 

Nat blinked again. She had always been good at catching up with what people said, but there was something that she couldn’t understand from the young alien girl’s words. Souls weren’t exactly her field of expertise, she never believed in them and most certainly she was sure her soul was already doomed. Her entire life proved that to be right. 

 

“How can I get out of there, then?” She asked, and another too wise and too old smile crossed the girl’s lips. 

 

“Walk in the water, and do not turn back.”

 

And when Nat moved a step forward, everything around her started to fade and nothing but the water at her feet, still immobile and dry remained in front of her eyes. She started to walk because she didn’t have anything else to do. And then, after what could have been minutes or years, everything became black in front of her. 

 

\--

 

“Agent Romanoff,” Nat opened her eyes to an unknown voice, her brain immediately letting a billion or so of alert messages while her right hand ran on the gun she kept in the holster all while backing off from the figure who was towering over her. She blinked her eyes twice, the hand on the cold handle didn’t move until she could see who the person in front of her was. She never met the man, pale, high cheekbones, dark hair and eyes of an impossible colour, but she knew who he was because she saw pictures of him. 

 

“Doctor Strange?!” She hated how surprised she sounded. She was supposed to be the woman three steps ahead of everyone else, but she was standing there, a dumbfounded expression on her face, trying to put together pieces that were going out of her control. She didn’t even have time to look at the place where she was, but from the great quantity of orange, she could say with certainty that she wasn’t too far from where she had the weirdest conversation in her life. 

 

The man nodded, extending a hand so that he could help her to stand up before turning his back at the woman, indicating a shiny portal in the middle of nowhere. “We have to go, the Avengers need us.”

 

That was the only explanation Natasha needed, even if a lot of questions were starting to appear in her mind. She knew that wasn’t the moment to voice them the moment Sam’s voice reached her ears. The spy smiled, moving a step closer to her friend and jumping at the other side of the orange circle, not being too surprised when she saw which was the scene at the other side of it. 

 

That kind of devastation was what she knew would have followed, hoping against hope that it could be prevented. It couldn’t, it didn’t matter what. She looked around, trying to get the biggest picture as possible of the battle that was happening in front of them. Thor seemed to be knocked out, the Compound collapsed and she couldn't see what was happening at the other side of the building. Steve was standing in the middle of the battlefield, blood rushing down the right side of his face and Tony was fighting and having the worst against the Mad Titan. 

 

There was something weird, in being back, and still, everything Nat could think about was that they were all together, like they should have been a long time ago. 

 

“Avengers -” Steve’s voice sounded extremely exhausted, and still it was clear how the opening portals filled him with hope. Hope that not everything was lost. Hope that they could stop the Titan before he caused further destruction. “Assemble!” 

 

And then, two different things happened: while everyone started to run toward the battle, Thor threw Mjolnir to the closer child of Thanos while keeping wielding Stormbreaker to some of the creatures which were approaching him. The hammer opened its way through the alien and flew toward Nat. 

 

It was barely out of reflex, but she couldn’t help to close her hand around the handle, knowing that it would probably result in her being crushed against the earth beneath her boots, very likely. What she didn’t wait for, though, was realizing that the thing was way lighter than it seemed. 

 

“Thor,” She yelled, over the mess of creatures that seemed to acknowledge her presence too, now. With the hammer in her right hand and a gun in her left, she was immediately swallowed by the fighting. Every question that was arising in her mind was trying to find its way to her lips, but she was well aware that this wasn’t the moment. The god turned to look at her, and she could see his surprise in the deep of his uneven eyes. “Are you perchance missing a hammer?”

 

“I knew it!” Was all the answer she got, after yet another happy smile. “You can borrow it.”

 

The Black Widow smiled, disappearing a moment later back in the fight. It was weird, going back in the land on living after Vormir and wherever that conversation with the green alien happened. But it was a kind of weird at which she was used. She had been trained for the war, she was a shadow just a little bit darker than the others. She wasn’t a soldier, she was a ballerina, and that was the deadliest dance ever, but a dance still. 

 

She turned on herself, charging her gun for the tenth time or so, before throwing Mjönlir to the creature which seemed to have developed a liking for Cap. “I’m always having your back, Steve,” A playfully smile crossed her lips. “Need a com.”

 

Steve nodded, an earpiece appeared out of nowhere. “It’s good to have you back.” 

 

“Tell me when this will be over. Guys, did you miss me?” 

 

What she received back over the com was a series of surprised questions, though she decided it was better to store them away for a moment in which she would have known the answers too. As Nat said more than once, she just acted like she knew everything. 

 

\--

 

“I am inevitable,” She heard Thanos’s voice in her earpiece, even if she was too far, from now, to see what was going on with Tony and the Mad Titan. She rushed over: almost every one of the creatures that ran after Thanos himself was defeated and his Children or whatever started to assemble around him, to the point that the only threat for whoever wasn’t too exhausted and but for the Titan himself was the giant tsunami that Strange was keeping back from them. 

 

“And I am Iron Man,” Stark answered, and Nat had to take her eyes away from the bright lights that were coming from Tony’s gauntlet. She rushed over, trying to focus on one single voice in the com and not to pay attention to the others while it was kind of impossible. And then the image in front of her eyes froze the Black Widow on spot. 

 

She had always been used to see Tony get up and fight, over and over again, especially when the odds were against him. She had known him in one of those occasions, she had always been by his side, trying to help as she could and now she couldn’t, that was the truth, because everyone was powerless. 

 

She was hearing Peter’s sobbings, she saw Rhodey curling over Tony’s form and Pepper reaching them on the land and in that moment, she couldn’t hear anything. She was used to be strong, she had to, for her entire life she knew that not showing emotions was the only way she had to survive, to fight, to prove the people around her she could do everything. But Tony saw through her mask, and he let her see through his. And she hated what she could read on the left side of the billionaire’s face. 

 

“Heart failure,” She heard someone say in her ear. She was half sure that the message was addressed to her only and it took too long to connect the voice with a face, but then she understood it belonged to Strange. “Karen called an ambulance, they’ll be there in ten minutes, if you find a way to prevent that, it won’t be too late.” 

 

And Nat understood. She didn’t even know how, but she just knew. She turned to look for her teammates. Most of them were keeping their distances to let them sort out what was wrong with Tony, the others were helping the injured ones on their feet or trying to push them as far as possible from the collapsed Compound. 

 

“Thor,” She whispered, hoping that the god could hear her voice. “I need the hammer, now.” And then she extended her right arm, still too surprised when Mjolnir flew in her grip. She didn’t even know if she could do it. She had no idea if being worth of the thing meant that she had the same powers Thor did when she was using it, but she didn’t care. It was worth a try. 

 

“Everyone, stay back!” She passed through the small crowd, a hand pushed against her arm and she didn’t dare to look at wide chocolate brown eyes, she couldn’t, she knew which was the request she would have found in those. Peter was asking her to save his mentor, and she wasn’t sure if she could, but sure as hell, she was going to try. Every step she took was slow and painful, and yet she managed to kneel down in front of Tony, placing the hammer against the arc reactor housing. “Please, - a whispered plead to no god in particular. If there was one willing to listen, she would have thanked them, after. - work.”

 

Nat could feel the tears pooling at the corners of her eyes, she could feel the hard ground under her knees and she could feel her hands shaking against the cold surface of Thor’s hammer. And then she felt something else, something different. Something buzzing in her ears, and something similar to wind in her body, coming from the hammer itself. She drew her jade eyes on her hands and found them sparkling with an energy that was coming from the earth on which she was. And then she understood that a god heard her. Thor was channelling his powers into the ground so that Mjonlir could absorb them. 

 

Nat nodded, pushing the weapon closer to Tony’s chest and taking it off once the arc reactor started to shine again. 

 

“Karen?” Peter’s voice was broken, but a moment later the Spider-Kid was throwing his arms around Nat’s neck, pushing her back in the ground and crying against her shoulder so the spy guessed that whatever reading his AI got was promising. She had to ask, though.

 

“Peter, Pete, talk to me. Did it work?” She wasn’t sure she wanted to know, and holding the teen as she was she couldn’t see what was going on behind them. 

 

“Yes… Yes… Karen told me… He’s out of danger,” And that was the moment when Nat realized that she was the one who was shaking. “You did it, Mrs Romanoff. You saved him.”

 

Peter helped her back on her feet just for Nat to be trapped in Rhodey’s strong arms. She didn’t complain, she was well aware that she would have broken down otherwise so she just let the man pretend she wasn’t crying and whispered a “thank you” to Strange, who nodded back. 

 

“Are you fine?” Rhodey asked her, after some minutes in which they just stay there like this. The man’s arm was around her waist, almost completely support her weight.

 

“Always,” She replied, almost immediately, without even giving the man the possibility to add something. She knew that she wasn’t, but she was just too stubborn to admit it. 

 

“Do you want me to let you go?”

 

“No,” It was a plea, her eyes still fixed on Tony’s form, in the background, she could hear the siren from an ambulance. 

 

When James answered her, Nat knew he was smirking: “I wasn’t expecting anything else.”

 

And, for once, Nat didn’t care about seeming weak, especially when Clint and Bruce joined that weird hug in which she was trapped. She didn’t care because that was her family, and families were meant to protect and love. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> kudos and comments make me happy!
> 
> **wanna say hi?** find me on tumblr @myrxellabaratheon and @ironstrange-is-the-endgame


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